Jeff CarlisleU.S. soccer correspondent10 Minute Read
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The findings of the U.S. Soccer Federation’s investigation into the home violence incident involving former U.S. males’s nationwide group supervisor Gregg Berhalter and his spouse Rosalind — in addition to the conduct of Claudio and Danielle Reyna because it associated to the World Cup enjoying time of their son, Gio Reyna — have been launched on Monday.
The investigation and report, carried out by an impartial regulation agency, corroborated a lot of the earlier reporting executed by ESPN and elsewhere when it comes to what usually transpired between the Reynas and the Berhalters. But it additionally added extra particulars demonstrating the lengths to which the Reynas went in an effort to affect how decision-makers at U.S. Soccer ought to deal with their son, together with allegations of “bullying,” and shed new mild on the federation’s insular tradition.
Here’s a deeper have a look at how this saga performed out, what the investigation discovered and what it means for these concerned.
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How did U.S. Soccer, Berhalter and the Reynas attain a degree the place an investigation was mandatory?
This Shakespearean story is about quite a lot of issues — friendships ruined, a household’s ambitions for his or her son, an admitted incident of home violence — however it got here aside because of the most simple of soccer elements: enjoying time, or an absence thereof.
It began with U.S. nationwide group midfielder Gio Reyna enduring an injury-plagued 2021-22 season and Gregg Berhalter’s issues about Reyna’s health, which led the coach to cut back him to a substitute’s function for the World Cup. Reyna sulked in consequence, coasting by way of practices, a lot in order that Berhalter almost despatched him residence.
While there was appreciable debate over Reyna’s function amongst followers and pundits, the story was almost out of oxygen till Berhalter revealed the incident throughout a talking engagement at a management convention lower than two weeks after the U.S. was knocked out of the World Cup. Berhalter did not identify names, however hypothesis instantly pointed to Reyna.
That drew the wrath of the Reyna household. Claudio and Danielle Reyna have been already incensed over their son’s lack of enjoying time, and had made sturdy hints that there was one thing in Berhalter’s previous that will stop him from being retained by U.S. Soccer because the group’s head coach.
After demanding a dialog with U.S. Soccer’s then-sporting director Earnie Stewart, Danielle Reyna divulged that Berhalter had dedicated an act of home violence in opposition to his now spouse Rosalind in 1992. During their freshman yr on the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the Berhalters received into an argument exterior a bar after Rosalind was seen dancing with one other student-athlete. Rosalind hit Gregg within the face, after which Gregg pushed her down and kicked her twice. At that time a bystander tackled Gregg, ending the altercation. Police weren’t notified.
Stewart, following federation coverage, informed U.S. Soccer’s legal professionals concerning the allegation. The federation then employed the regulation agency Alston & Bird to research.
Meanwhile, Berhalter publicly admitted to the incident. His contract as U.S. males’s nationwide group supervisor expired Dec. 31, 2022.
What new particulars did the investigation discover, and what conclusions did it attain concerning the conduct of Berhalter and the Reynas?
For the Berhalters, the investigation corroborated their model of occasions, together with that the home violence incident did happen. The investigation additionally confirmed that after the incident, Gregg Berhalter sought counseling in addition to group work in a bid to make amends. He and Rosalind later reconciled, received married and now have 4 youngsters collectively.
The investigation additionally concluded that Berhalter did not violate any legal guidelines or U.S. Soccer insurance policies in not disclosing the incident. Since there was no police report, it wasn’t one thing that will have popped up on a background examine, nor would he have been requested in the course of the interview course of about such an incident.
For these causes, Berhalter is now free to be employed once more by U.S. Soccer and stays a candidate to as soon as once more tackle the function as U.S. males’s nationwide group supervisor.
As for the Reynas, the report confirmed they pressured U.S. Soccer officers and coaches about enjoying time for his or her son, however the investigation discovered the Reynas had been doing this for a number of years, which included complaining to a coach on the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup about Gio Reyna’s enjoying time. The report additionally revealed how far the Reynas have been keen to go, with one staffer characterizing Claudio Reyna’s interactions as “inappropriate,” “bullying” and “mean-spirited.”
At the final World Cup, Claudio Reyna texted Earnie Stewart about Gio’s lack of enjoying time in opposition to Wales to say, “What an entire and utter f—ing joke. Our household is disgusted in case you might be questioning. Disgusted at how a coach is allowed to by no means be challenged and do no matter he needs.”
The report discovered that each Claudio and Danielle Reyna made veiled threats to U.S. Soccer officers that there was one thing in Berhalter’s previous that will stop him from persevering with because the group’s supervisor. Danielle informed a federation staffer, “Once this event is over, I could make one cellphone name and provides one interview, and his cool sneakers and bounce passes will likely be gone.”
Claudio Reyna informed Brian McBride, then-GM of the boys’s nationwide group: “You guys do not even know what we find out about Gregg.”
So, what does this imply for Gregg Berhalter and his future at U.S. Soccer?
Officially it means there isn’t any purpose he cannot be employed by U.S. Soccer once more because the federation is on the lookout for a head coach after Berhalter’s contract expired on the finish of final yr. An argument could be made that his document warrants it, reaching the World Cup knockout phases and profitable a pair of continental titles — the Gold Cup and the Nations League, each in 2021– at Mexico’s expense.
But that’s removed from assured, and there are a number of the reason why that won’t happen.
There is a way that 4 years is as lengthy a tenure that nationwide group supervisor ought to have earlier than their message will get stale and so they change into much less efficient, although there are exceptions. Another lingering concern is how a lot injury did Berhalter do when it comes to the belief of the U.S. males’s nationwide group locker room following his veiled disclosure of Gio Reyna’s conduct on the World Cup.
But the largest purpose of all is the home violence challenge. Yes, it was from 31 years in the past. Yes, the investigation concluded that it was certainly a one-off, and never one thing that Berhalter repeated. But it did occur, and given how U.S. Soccer has dealt with abuse allegations up to now — or not dealt with them — the federation might resolve that it is simply simpler to maneuver on, and rent somebody new. Federation officers, nevertheless, have insisted that hiring a head coach is a call that will not be made till a brand new sporting director is employed to interchange Earnie Stewart, who left in January for a brand new job, and so they hope to announce a coach by September.
Will Berhalter work in soccer once more? Given that he was cleared of wrongdoing right here, he will certainly have choices. But it’d profit him to get a ways from the U.S. program, whether or not that is by taking a job abroad, and even in MLS. If he have been to be rehired by U.S. Soccer, the heaviness of what has occurred within the final six months would nonetheless be there. With the U.S. co-hosting the 2026 World Cup with Canada and Mexico, that’s one thing the federation might resolve it might do with out.
And what does this imply for the Reynas?
For Gio Reyna, the previous six months will weigh on him.
Granted, a few of what occurred is his fault. His angle ought to have been method higher, and it should not have taken an intervention to vary it. But he was a bystander when it comes to the whole lot that occurred after the World Cup and what his mother and father did. None of that’s his fault.
That stated, given the questions that can come up at his subsequent U.S. camp, Gio might resolve he is not prepared to participate within the worldwide window on the finish of the month, when the U.S. face Grenada and El Salvador within the CONCACAF Nations League. But U.S. Soccer clearly needs him within the fold. Interim U.S. males’s nationwide group supervisor Anthony Hudson has already taken a visit to Germany the place Gio performs for Borussia Dortmund in a bid to easy over any laborious emotions. The sooner that Gio returns, the faster he can transfer on.
As for his mother and father, the excellent news is that the investigation concluded that they did not commit blackmail or extortion. But that is about it.
This total episode will likely be extraordinarily troublesome to reside down for the Reynas, and so they managed to return out trying worse because the report revealed that Claudio Reyna declined to talk to investigators whereas Danielle Reyna modified her story over the course of two interviews. (In her first interview, she denied saying she spoke to Stewart “about something.” She later admitted she did.)
The stage of pettiness, vindictiveness and incapability to see the larger image, as revealed within the investigation, rivals the worst excesses of pushy, youth soccer mother and father. The investigation paints this as a long-term sample from Claudio Reyna — again in 2018, he even took to complaining to a federation official a few U.S. Soccer Development Academy recreation having feminine referees, per the report.
Perhaps probably the most galling half about it’s that Gio Reyna’s expertise was apparent from an early age; the Reynas did not want to do that. His pedigree and expertise nearly actually would have gotten him to the place he’s at this time.
Now, a lifelong friendship between the Berhalter and Reyna households has been broken, in all probability past restore, however which may not even evaluate to the hurt executed to Claudio Reyna’s skilled popularity.
Claudio Reyna’s public persona was that of the sage — one whose expertise in Europe gave him an astute, goal view of the place the U.S. stood within the broader soccer panorama, and the way finest to enhance the nation’s pedigree as a soccer nation. He was a cerebral participant on the sector, one who Stewart as soon as stated “introduced peace to the sport.” He projected the identical air of calmness to his govt roles. But that façade has been torn off, with Claudio revealing himself to be no extra proof against the worst soccer father or mother impulses than anybody else.
It is now troublesome to see how Claudio Reyna can tackle any public-facing function and have any credibility in any respect, regardless of his successes with NYCFC and most lately Austin FC. Could he tackle a task extra within the background? He might. He’s nonetheless in an advisory function at Austin, although it is unclear precisely what that entails. (ESPN has reached out to Austin FC for remark.) But that could be a large come-down from the place he as soon as stood. It will take some doing, and appreciable time, to even get again to the extent which he only in the near past occupied. He might by no means make it again.
What’s subsequent for the U.S. Soccer Federation?
This entire saga has additionally confirmed some quite long-held suspicions concerning the federation: that it is too insular, too chummy, an excessive amount of of a good-old-boy community.
Sure, an govt is sure to rent, or not less than find time for, their associates. But Claudio Reyna ought to by no means have been allowed to have the type of entry to coaches and executives that he did. That the U.S. Soccer is barely now placing collectively a coverage to stop father or mother/coach interactions primarily based on the investigation speaks to how a lot Claudio abused his entry.
Now, with Earnie Stewart having vacated his sporting director function, U.S. Soccer will attempt to transfer on by hiring Stewart’s substitute, who will in flip drive the seek for a males’s nationwide group coach. Federation officers actually appear to be taking their time about it, a headshaking behavior that reared itself in the course of the prolonged course of that led to Berhalter’s hiring.
Interviews for the sporting director place are underway, a U.S. Soccer spokesman informed ESPN. With the summer time months occupying the interval on the calendar when probably the most coaches will likely be obtainable, the earlier that place is crammed the higher.
